


To the new Frontier

by mywasteddream



Series: Interstellar Union of Humanity universe [1]
Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: AU-SF, Gen, Outer Space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-21 09:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3686469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mywasteddream/pseuds/mywasteddream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was Nino's first flight out of earth. He never traveled outside the Sovereign Country of Yamato. However, job was luring him out of his comfort zone and forced him to move to IDDC - the Interstellar Defense Development Center, where he's being contracted as mechanoid programmer.</p><p>2010 SY (5931AD)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Flight

**Author's Note:**

> This is the start of a monster that I'm trying to develop with a help from my friend. However, since we are still developing the characters, it's decided to upload selected fragments that we write to help us build the characters.

It was his first flight out of earth.   
  
When the pilot counted backwards, "... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ..." his heart beat fast and he gripped on the arms of his seat tightly. The grip stayed there when the pilot said, "Blast off!" and the plane started to shake and moved along the parabola belt that helped propelling their ship out from the earth's atmosphere.   
  
He felt his body pressed into the back of his seat.   
  
He read in his pandectium that earth's atmosphere made the process to go in and out of the planet much more　uncomfortable compared to other planets or cytreves that has artificial transparent shell-like atmosphere with vacuum door. It seems that the description was not an exaggeration when the plane started shaking harder and the pressure he felt on his body multiplied.   
  
He cursed the fact that the plane he boarded was not anti-graviti built for taking off from earth. But flight with that kind of system was triple in price and he had no money. Not yet. His career would only start now and he was still burdened with study loan.   
  
He never thought of going out from earth. He hated traveling, not even to the next city. The only thing he enjoyed about flying was playing mechanoid simulators. Nothing else. And he definitely hated to be not the one driving.   
  
The speakers on his safety helmet warned him that the plane would leave the atmosphere and said that the air pressure adjustment would follow after.  
  
"We warn you to stay on your seat during the procedure," it said, "If you feel　uncomfortable from the sudden change of gravity and repressurization, the space-sickness auto-syringe is available at the left hand side of your seat. Please retrieve it and follow our guided procedure...."  
  
He hurriedly grabbed the auto-syringe as the voice continued.   
  
"Pull off the red plug and activate the auto-syringe by putting your thumb on the reader. Our system will check your physical-check up data and adjust the auto-syringe for your dosage."  
  
He pulled the red plug, a little slow because of the gravity trying to pull the whole ship back to earth, and registered his fingerprint to the device. It whirred lightly in his hand and the small screen told him to wait. It was in English. He slightly cursed himself for forgetting to turn on his babelhan. It's not that he did not understand English, but when he arrived to the next station in Bergbau3T, he would have to adjust himself to germanic language. He shuddered when he remembered that going to Bergbau3T required them to pass the tritium mining area. Earth was basically clean from radioactive elements - save from the dumpsites. The space was something else.  
  
The auto-syringe's buzz brought his attention back.  
  
The screen flashed his name, age, weight and body mass, and the amount of dosage he needed.  
  
"Please confirm if the data shown is correct. If the data is not correct, please repeat the same procedure by putting your thumb on the reader again."   
  
There was no time for another cycle of procedure, though, because the pilot warned everyone that the ride might get bumpier and he started to feel uncomfortable in his stomach. He did not want to throw up inside his full-locked helmet so he pushed the confirm button and used the auto-syringe infrared to scan his right arm. When it found the right place for injection, it stabbed its needle and he felt something flowed inside him. The needle retracted in no time, and the screen flashed a reminder that the drug will work after a short moment and requested to be put back into its slot.  
  
He extended his hand with extra force to fight the gravity and managed to click the slot to close before he started feeling drowsiness coming over him.   
  
He still heard the pilot counting down for exiting earth's gravity in "5... 4... 3...."  
  
And then there was darkness.


	2. Welcome to Outer Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When he woke up from his slumber, the ship has entered Sirius system.

When he woke up from his slumber, the ship had entered Sirius system. He did not feel his first jump through the wormhole because of the syringe and he regretted it. He might not like the feeling of the jump, but like European people crossing the equator in the forgotten past, first crossing through a wormhole was regarded as something special.

 

He looked at the window screen to his left. It showed him the outside view. Transparent materials were either deemed not strong enough for interstellar travel or very expensive, so plasma screens were used to substitute windows for human comfort. During wormhole, it usually transmitted slow moving night-sky rather than stretched and compacted light seen captured by the surveillance system all over the ship. Human are so fragile and prone to stress. It was what he learned during his studies. 

 

He failed to recognize the constellations. Everything looked different from that point. Instead of the sun, he saw Sirius A glowing with its pup, Sirius B next to it. He failed to recognize other stars that shaped Canis Major. They might be above him or under him.

 

"First flight out of earth?" He heard someone talk to him from his side.

 

An elderly Caucassian sat across the alley from him. His helmet was on his lap, and he was munching on something that looked like jerky. The man laughed whole heartedly when Nino nodded. He said, "I was like you on my first flight out of earth."

 

He pointed at the helmet that Nino was wearing. "You can take it off now. The atmosphere regulator is on."

 

Nino pushed on the control bar on his right wrist and his helmet loosened with a hiss. Burst of fresh air came to him.

 

"You missed your first jump, then," the man said again, "but actually, there's nothing special about it. You feel no difference throughout the jump anyway."

 

Nino just smile awkwardly to the comment. He knew that. He learned about it in the university, in Space Engineering 101. He knew also the initial speed and the frequency needed to enter the wormhole, plane minimum and maximum weight, material specifications, and all other things related to interstellar travels. After all, he would be part of Interstellar Union of Humanity's Defense Force R&D team - IDDC as a programmer.

 

"Where are you going, Kid?" The man asked. "You look like you're too young to work in the mining site in Sirius Tres Beta. Visiting someone?"

 

It was not surprising for a Caucasian to misread Nino's age. Even for people from Sovereign Country of Yamato, he looked younger than his actual age. He was almost 27, but people often mistaken him as 10 years younger in extreme cases. He had small stature to begin with, and he had childish eyes and lack of wrinkles on his skin. Most of the time Nino did not bother to correct them.

 

"I'm visiting someone. And you, Sir, do you come here often?" Nino said with a hint of smile as he felt more comfortable with the regulated atmosphere and controlled gravitation. He engaged in a conversation with the stranger, but it was the other party who talked more. It was always nice to talk to someone during travel. It made the time feel shorter.  


 

 

 

Bergbau3T is a cytref in Sirius A goldilock belt. It was built by the Federation of German Populi to mine gas from Luftberg, a giant gas planet in the system. The cytref had been there for about 400 years, and it was bustling from its gas mining business. Luftberg had oxygen and nitrogen, both essential for air in human standard. The planet was business to everyone in space.

 

When Nino stepped out of the ship after a three day’s journey (he had to remember using the word “earth-day” or “earth-rotation” from now on), he felt a little overwhelmed by the number of ships that docked the bay. Most of them were freight ship, ready to send the gas elsewhere or sending in refuse gas to be pushed back into Luftberg - something that they say needed to be done so the mass of the planet would not change so much. The number of people from different nations that flowed in and out of the ship were many. It was a stark difference with earth's space bay. Only big ones such as in Alaska, Hokkaido, and Iceland were literally huge - he never really saw them, though, while others like the one he went from in Tokyo Off Coast Stellar Port was small and quiet, with only one flight a day. The flight he took to Sirius was one of the busiest one, being available for once a week.

 

He walked along the stream of people to the disembarkation station where he had to let the machine scan him and read the data on his ID - a small chip filled with encryption data. This system was to make sure Interstellar database safe. All data floating around Interstellar Union of Humanity's network was encrypted by their security system but each individual have the liberty to change the encryption code of their personal data. Interstellar system created the standardized ID system way back during the first galactic war, but personalized encryption is a new system established as the Metuselan started the war with them - human. 

 

Nino had his ID planted in his armband. It was made of polycarbonate, smooth black and plain. The polycarbonate arm band was probably the most expensive thing he ever bought aside from his flight simulator machine. But it was a good buy. It was strong and waterproof. He needed not to take it off. Having ID everywhere was recommended, it acted as bank account, identification, and could be attached to other systems such as office or education.

 

"Your ID, Sir," said the disembarkation guard who was on stand-by at the identification machine.

 

Nino put his left arm on the ID reader and waited until the screen next to it flashed his registration number, name, and his birth date. Another window came on top of the data, asking him to choose which body identification system to verify his data. A slight glance to the guard who stared back at him, and he chose the ultrasound imaging. The ID reader changed color while the screen told him to put his body part registered as identification. Nino pushed the button to proceed.

 

Most people would think that he was using fingerprint identification, since it was the most common body part used as identification, but he actually added his bone structure into the system. The pins in his carpal bones could act as additional identification to his fingerprints. He thought that it was funny that the pins he got when he broke his carpal bones could be used to complicate identification theft. The pins still hurt sometimes when temperature dropped. He considered it as a price for encryption top level security.

 

The screen flashed green and mentioned that his identification was verified. 

 

The guard's rigid posture melted for a slight second when he said, "Welcome to Bergbau3T, Mr. Ninomiya."

**Author's Note:**

> Notes for terms used in this universe:
> 
> pandectium : came from the word "pandect"; in this universe pandectium is a knowledge web system to compile articles approved by the Interstellar education board, and is compulsory for all Interstellar people to be a member as part of their education system. 
> 
> cytref (plural: cytreves) : [root: Welsh word for colony or conurbation] It is the term for floating space station that houses one or two cities. 
> 
> babelhan (バビル反)/babelagin/antibabel: is the term for a zepto-chip planted on the language-processing part of brain which have a transmitter to extensive dictionary in pandectium. This chip allows people to understand, read, and speak other languages. Human brain can pick up the language input and understand it naturally after some exposure of the new language in daily life. Despite the convenience, it is not recommended to install several language library set at the same time, because it might give discomfort such as headache or nausea if the brain cannot hold the data amount transferred if exposed to all the new languages at the same time.


End file.
